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Is a recording of a music box that plays a public domain classical melody copyrighted by the box manufacturer?

Question by Kazuki Mishima: Is a recording of a music box that plays a public domain classical melody copyrighted by the box manufacturer?
I want to use a recording of a music box playing a theme from one of Claude Debussy’s “Arabesques” in Creative Commons-licensed music. Should I be concerned about copyright issues?
I would be recording the sound produced by the music box myself.

Best answer:

Answer by Terry
No, the clip of the music is very short on a music box anyway and short clips from a performance can generally be re-used, and it isn’t being ‘performed’ in the normal sense anyway. The music is in the public domain. You should be OK on that one.

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